Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sitting in the back hall of the only mosque of suburban Buffalo, with all the women and kids and babies and candy, I re-lived the old days. Not the really old days, when we sat in the Buffalo Darul Uloom, constructed from the remnants of a long-since attended church, and not Parker, as we lovingly refer to the little house on Parker St. which served as the only Masjid in Buffalo for most of our lives, but the "newer-old days," of sitting in the back row at Heim mosque with all the other Muslims living closer to suburbia than the weird part of downtown where the other two masjids were located. It used to be the random Kashmiri aunties who would dramatically rise up from their front row seats to yell at the small children for screaming during khuthba (sermon), but on this Eid there was a handful of 8-12 year old children walking in turn through each isle with a handmade sign that read "PLEASE BE SILENT! KHUTHBA IS ALSO PART OF PRAYER!"

A sandwich board may have been more effective, and cuter, and may have won over some sympathy. This attempt at a solution was generally disturbing the crowd and keeping us all from hearing what was actually being said in this lecture. So once again, I have no idea what the Imam talked about today, but I do know a sheep died in our names and I can only hope it will bring us some sense of peace this year.